A new prosecution witness (PW) in the trial of engineer Abdul Jabbar on Wednesday testified at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1, narrating the heinous crimes that the fugitive former Jatiya Party MP had committed during the War of Liberation.
Ahmed Miah, 60, appearing as the PW-9 described how Jabbar, chairman of Mathbaria unit Peace Committee in Pirojpur in 1971, ordered the killings of two valiant Freedom Fighters (FFs).
“On May 16, 1971, Jabbar, from a public meeting held at Tushkhali High School field, ordered his cohorts to bring Motaleb Sharif and fellow Abdur Razzak Biswas in front him dead or alive. Following his order, a group of Razakars raided their houses at village Fuljhuri under Mathbaria upazila that afternoon and shot and killed Motaleb on the spot. They shot at Razzak too, but he survived the day only to die three days later,” Ahmed said.
“The next day Razakars led by Jabbar again raided our village. They shot and killed Sharoda Paik. They looted more than three hundred house on that day and set those on fire,” he added.
The witness also described the incident where around 200 Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam.
“They set up a makeshift mosque at Paik Bari in our village Fuljhuri and compelled some Hindu girls to marry Muslim boys,” Ahmed said.
After his deposition, advocate Mohammad Abul Hasan, state-appointed defence counsel for Jabbar, cross-examined him and the tribunal then adjourned the hearing till today.
The ICT-1 on August 14 indicted Jabbar, framing five charges of crimes against humanity against him.
